Comments on: My rules of thumb for developers: use less indentation

By: bryan

bryan — Mon, 12 May 2008 21:03:23 +0000

"elsif," "else if" and their ilk are enemies of readable code. Also, as McConnell states in CC, long functions are enemies of readability.

A few comments go a long way

if (something > 10) {
  if (something < 100) {
    // Do something
  } else {
    if (something > 150) {
      // Do something else
    } else {
      return false;
    } // > 150
  } // < 100
} else {
  while (something < 10) {
    // Do some other stuff
  }
} // > 10

By: Rob Drimmie

Rob Drimmie — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:36:09 +0000

I am just chiming in with my agreement.

Some support for this style is offered by Steve McConnell in Code Complete. Section 17.1 talks about return statements, and a key point is "Use a return when it enhances readability".

The downside McConnell identifies is that it can be hard to identify where a function exits if there are too many returns, but that's an issue that is avoided more by following other principles of good style.

By: Dave Smith

Dave Smith — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:09:31 +0000

You’re describing what is elsewhere known as a “guard clause”. It’s a fine way to handle all of the “early out” test that would otherwise clutter up a method with extra nesting.

By: Rafe

Rafe — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:33:30 +0000

Yeah, I use continue a lot.

By: Quillian

Quillian — Mon, 12 May 2008 03:19:16 +0000

I normally use a default return value at the end of a code function, so I'd do like(in a pseudocode):

func f(string s){
   if(s == "something"){
    //Do something
      if( s.strlen() == 10){
    return true;
 }
  }
  return false;
}

In C I see people who like goto to do cleanup like:

int f(char *s){
  int retv = 0;
  if(strcmp(s,"something") != 0){
    goto f_end;
  }
  //Do something
  if(strlen(s) == 10){
    retv =1;
  }
f_end:
  //Logging, debugging messages, etc.
  return retv;
}

By: Leo Petr

Leo Petr — Mon, 12 May 2008 02:25:57 +0000

In loops, you would use ‘break’ and ‘continue’ to achieve a similar de-nesting. ‘Continue’ is especially underused.